


III. The Empress

by PostcardsfromTheoryland



Series: April Tarot Card Prompts [6]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AU Krolia raises Keith, young!keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:47:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23524849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PostcardsfromTheoryland/pseuds/PostcardsfromTheoryland
Summary: The Empress: Mother’s love, creativity, nurturing careFighting the Empire as a single mother is not easy, but Krolia does what she needs to.
Relationships: Keith & Krolia (Voltron)
Series: April Tarot Card Prompts [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1686346
Comments: 10
Kudos: 70





	III. The Empress

Krolia was incredibly lucky that Keith had been too young to remember anything about earth. As it was, he took it in stride that they sometimes had to move in the middle of the night, or that they occasionally lived off the land on some lonely planet all by themselves. Eventually she was going to need to explain that she was a rebel fighting against the Empire, and sometimes the Empire caught wind of them and they had to run, but for now Keith was willing to accept the flimsy excuses she gave him, focusing instead on some of the even harder questions.

“What did my dad look like?”

“Why aren’t I purple?”

“What was earth like?”

“How come your ears are so much fluffier than mine?”

“Can you tell me about dad?”

“He was incredibly brave,” she answered one evening, trying to decide how much Keith was ready to understand about the war. “When I crash landed on earth, he immediately brought me to his house, even though I looked a lot different from him and earthlings didn’t know that there were other people besides them in the universe.”

“They didn’t know at all?” Keith asked in wonder as he snuggled into her side like he always did whenever she told him about earth.

“I think some of the smart ones suspected, but they didn’t know for sure,” she responded, absently rubbing at a smudge of dirt on his brow. “He was kind, and thoughtful. He came up with a very silly disguise so I could go into the village with him and see other humans, something called a...cosplay?” she tripped over the unfamiliar words, frustrated that she didn’t remember more of the language so she could teach it to Keith. “When some...bad people came one night, he worked very hard to protect us, and something else important on earth, and that’s why they hurt him. We...lost him, but he made sure those bad people couldn’t hurt anyone else.”

“And then you took me to space,” Keith said, as if it had been that simple. Though his human appearance reminded him of Cal, she wished, not for the first time, that it was easier for Keith to blend in. Or at the very least that he had some way to protect himself, all blunt nails and teeth. There had been a moment, she remembered guiltily, where she thought about leaving Keith behind. But then he had looked up at her, all trusting innocence, and she remembered what Cal had said about humans not having the best system for taking care of children without parents, and the decision was made for her.

She loved Keith, loved that he was a tiny spark of light for her in a losing battle against the Empire. But she was really starting to wonder how long she could keep them balanced precariously on the knife’s edge, so to speak, before it all blew up in her face. 

* * *

By all accounts, monitoring the feeds around the base should be an easy task, and most of the time it was. Ulaz had half an eye on the monitors, if that, while the rest of his focus was on the most recent set of schematics from Slav. Thace was idly flipping his knife into the air, bored out of his mind.

“Tell me again why Kolivan decided he needed both of us for this shift?”

“Because there’s been an uptick in Imperial activity recently,” Ulaz replied without looking up from his work.

“We’re not even doing anyth-”

The alarms chose that moment to start blaring, pinpointing a single fighter that was approaching. It really didn’t even pose a threat, one little ship was like throwing a bug at an electrical storm, but then the ship _hailed_ them. With a code that was several years too old, but one of theirs nonetheless. Thace and Ulaz shared a look before bringing up visual contact, both surprised to see someone who looked...very much not Galra. And _incredibly young_. Still, looks could be deceiving, and who knew what Zarkon’s witch was up to these days.

“State your name, rank, and purpose immediately, or we will shoot you out of the sky,” Thace demanded.

There was a little hitch to his breathing, before “...Keith? I need help, please, she said you would help.”

“We aren’t a charity case, kid,” Thace growled. “We can’t help you.”

“Um,” the strange alien said, voice wobbling, “mom said if you said that I’m supposed to show you this.” And he held up one of their own blades.

What.

“Please, she’s hurt and she said you would help and I don’t know what to do, please…”

“What’s your mother’s name, Little One?” Ulaz asked next to him, the picture of calm, as if some alien child hadn’t just piloted his way to their base.

“Krolia,” he sniffled, and both he and Ulaz snapped to attention.

Guess that explained why Krolia hadn’t ever returned from her mission.

“Krolia has a _child_?” Thace hissed as Ulaz shushed him.

“She’s hurt?” he asked the alien instead, who started crying in earnest.

“Bad people came and they shot lasers at her and she was bleeding and she said I needed to fly us to her friends, please…”

“I’m going to prepare the infirmary, you need to walk him through the path to the base,” Ulaz shouted as he ran out of the room, and oh _krel_ that kid was never going to actually make it, not through the gravitational fields…

“Ok, Keith, was it?” There was a breathy little sob in response, and damnit he knew why Ulaz had left but he was _not equipped for this_. “Alright, Keith, listen closely. I’m sending you a flight path to get into the base, but you need to follow this exactly, alright? There’s a lot of uh...weird stuff around you.”

“I know about black holes and stars,” the alien managed to sound offended through his tears, and wow that was definitely Krolia’s kid. “Will you help my mom?”

“Yes, my friend Ulaz is a doctor, he’s getting ready for her.” Kolivan was going to kill them for this, and he hoped to the gods that Krolia was going to survive. “You just focus on piloting, alright? Have you been flying for long?”

“Mom taught me lots,” he said, which really wasn’t an answer, but Thace guessed it was as good as he was going to get in the circumstances.

“Ok, that’s good, Krolia is a great pilot. I bet she taught you all kinds of stuff, right? Can you read the diagrams I’ve sent you?”

“I can _read_ ,” he shot back with a frown, and Thace was really starting to like this kid despite himself.

“Alright, so just take it nice and slow. Focus on the curve of the flight path, you’ll be here in no time.”

Thace had been in a lot of stressful situations, but watching Krolia’s alien child try to navigate his way to the base had to be right up there; he winced and gripped the console at each tiny deviation from the flight path, but damn that kid had some skill. Although Thace was pretty sure his fur had gone at least three shades lighter in the last half a varga, he actually made it.

“Ok, good job, really good. You just land on the top of the asteroid there, I’m going to be right out and we’ll get your mom all fixed up, ok?”

And Thace was dearly hoping that he hadn’t just lied to the kid.

* * *

“You know, I sent you on that mission because I assumed you wouldn’t get attached.”

Kolivan’s oh-so-disappointed voice hadn’t exactly been the first thing she wanted to hear when she woke up, but the fact that she was awake to hear it at all was, she supposed, a consolation prize. She opened her eyes to the Blade of Marmora infirmary, marveling for a moment that everything had somehow worked out, before panicking when she realized Keith wasn't immediately visible.

“Where is…”

“He’s fine,” Ulaz said, gesturing behind him at Keith, asleep in a heap on the other bed, clutching his tattered stuffed hippo to his chest. “Thace and I have been taking care of him while you recovered.”

“Children do not belong at the base,” Kolivan said, as if she had just shown up for a visit with her small half-alien son in tow.

“Why do you think I didn’t come back?” she answered. “Keith is my priority right now.”

“You should have left him on that backwater planet.”

“We were attacked,” she said bluntly. “Imperial scouts discovered us and they killed his father. You would have had me leave my helpless, infant son alone on a strange planet?”

“He is a distraction,” Kolivan said.

“A distraction that successfully piloted his way to the base despite all the obstacles, while emotionally compromised, and at the age of…?”

“Seven,” Krolia supplied. “He turns eight in two phoebs, give or take.” Converting calendars between planets had never been her strong suit.

“He’s a remarkable child,” Ulaz said. And Krolia could see where this was going, and she did _not_ like it.

“You won’t turn my son into a weapon,” she growled, trying to force herself out of bed to grab Keith and leave despite the pain flaring in her side.

“He was always going to follow in your footsteps though, wasn’t he?” Ulaz asked gently. “I’m not suggesting he go on missions until he is an adult, of course, but wouldn’t this be a better alternative? He told us how often you’ve moved around, and you’ve done admirably on your own, but a bigger support system for him can only help.”

“You’re saying this as if I have somehow already approved of it,” Kolivan reminded them, but Ulaz only scoffed.

“Two dobashes in and Keith had you wrapped around his finger. You just want to appear imposing and aloof because you don’t want to admit how worried you were about Krolia’s disappearance and subsequent recovery. Consider it, Krolia,” Ulaz said as he ushered Kolivan out of the infirmary and left her alone with her thoughts.

She did force herself up then, if only to gather Keith in and hold him, breathe him in and remind herself that somehow her son had done the impossible and gotten them to safety. Keith snuggled in without waking, clutching at the fabric of whatever shapeless infirmary outfit they’d put her in.

She had always wanted Keith to have a choice - the life of a rebel fighting against the Empire was not an easy one, and if Keith had decided he wanted to go live on earth with people who looked like him or, hell if he wanted to become some hermit artist on an uninhabited planet, she would have supported him. This felt like a betrayal of sorts, a self-fulfilling prophecy.

But if anything, this incident had proven that she couldn’t raise him without help, not if she didn’t want to risk his safety or doom him to losing both of his parents. And there were several half-Galra among the Blade’s ranks, who could perhaps help Keith navigate his hybrid status within their society better than she could. She smiled to herself, imagining Keith on Antok’s knee, hanging on to the older man’s every word.

“I like it here,” Keith mumbled. Clearly not as asleep as she’d thought he was.

“Do you?”

“Mm-hm. Ulaz explained all the science-y stuff, and then he gave Mr. Hippo a checkup too, just in case he got hurt.” And yes, now that he mentioned it, the tear in the hippo’s left foreleg looked like it had been expertly sewn together. “And Thace makes really good alma cookies.” Huh. That was something she hadn’t known.

“And Kolivan?”

“He let me sit in on the big important meeting,” Keith murmured, clearly fighting sleep. “I got to push the big button.” She had no idea what button Keith meant, but she dearly hoped Kolivan hadn’t let her child fire any missiles.

“We’ll think about it, alright?” she asked.

“Mmkay,” was the reply she got, and another drowsy snuggle as Keith sank back down to sleep.

Was it worth it, to give him the security and support now, only to risk Keith’s safety once he inevitably went on dangerous Blade missions? There wasn’t an easy, obvious answer, but she supposed they didn’t need to decide right now.

A few days of relative safety couldn’t hurt.


End file.
